


Death Before Disco

by ChaoticTendencies



Category: My Chemical Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 22:24:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 12,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7863556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticTendencies/pseuds/ChaoticTendencies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Killjoys die every day in a world that might not be worth living in at all, but the Fabulous Killjoys stick with life. That objective becomes a bit more complicated when two Killjoys save Kobra Kid and Party Poison from complete annihilation by a herd of Draculoids. Chemical Shot and Harmless Insanity have loads of secrets and quite the past that makes living to see tomorrow a bit trickier.<br/>Written with Leshis of Wattpad. The world in which this is based is not of our own minds (MCR called dibs), any other likenesses to actual people are probably put there on purpose, also not ours.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Come One, Come All

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel obliged to make a temporary apology. I have noticed, while copying this from it's save site, all paragraphs begin without an indentation. Until I figure out the best method of re-formatting this, please bear with me. I am sorry for this, as it made me cringe and now you have to deal with it. This problem will be seen to shortly.

Kobra Kid  
After a relatively routine supply run, my brother, Party Poison and I were driving down Route Guano, headed back to the diner where Fun Ghoul and Jet Star were waiting. Then, out of the blue, on the brink of our vision, the classic yellow-brown wasteland filled with white. Dracs, and lots of them. Party stopped abruptly and we jumped out of our Trans-Am, pulled out our ray guns and tried to defend ourselves. Classically, we were hopelessly outnumbered. I lost sight of Party and was rapidly losing this scuffle. I began to doubt my odds. Somehow, I missed the remaining Dracs moving to a tight formation around me, successfully allowing me to lose all faith I had in coming out of this situation unscathed. It really hit me then, I was going to get ghosted. dusted out right here on Route Guano. As the Dracs closed in on me, I saw a flash of color from behind a shrub nearby.  
"Duck!" Without warning, a girl, younger than me but not by much as far as looks could tell, jumped out began shooting the Dracs surrounding me. Her long brown hair with black tips fluttered and framed her face as she skillfully ended Dracs with deadly accuracy.  
As suddenly as she’d appeared, she turned to leave. Behind the shrub she had seemed to jump out of was a sleek black motorcycle with splashes of random, neon colors. It was covered in bright paint with no arrangement or pattern and random ads from before Better Living Industries monopolized existence.  
After a couple seconds of me staring at where she’d been, quite shell-shocked, I remembered that I didn’t know where Party was. "Party! Where are you?!" My brother’s red hair popped up from behind the Trans-Am. “I thought you got dusted. Let’s move!”  
“Where are we… What?” He exclaimed in confusion as I jumped into the driver's seat which was usually his and tore off after them, the slick black bike was hard to miss on the desert backdrop. After pursuing the pair for, um, however long it was we ended up at a small, low to the ground cement bunker, it was a place we’d been before. The Battery, a club created for and run by Killjoys. I leapt out of the Trans-Am and bolted down the outer staircase. The club music had just started to invade my sense of hearing as I entered, with Party hot on my heels.  
"Kobra! What are you doing?" he shouted at me, straining to be heard over the pounding beat.  
"The girl who saved my life went down here!" Then, as if through a haze or smoke, she was there, along with the girl who had waited by that badass motorcycle. Not knowing quite how to proceed, I walked up to the owner of the bar, Crash Cola.  
"Crash! Who's the brown haired bartender?" I asked  
"Oh her? Hey, Chem. Get over here!" The girl at the counter turned, and walked over my way.  
"Yeah, Crash? And who is this?" she asked, her tone melodic.  
"You don't remember me? You saved my life! Like ten minutes ago," I blurted out, a little confused. I wasn’t habitually forgotten so immediately.  
"Yeah?" she asked, obviously uninterested. "I'm Chemical Shot, and blondie over there is Harmless Insanity, and that’s our job. We save Killjoys. What makes you so special?" she glared at me.  
"Well, I'm Kobra Kid," I stated, confused at how she didn't know who I was.  
"And I already told you who I am, but you haven't explained why you feel all high  
and righteous," she said, getting annoyed.  
"I'm, uh, not to brag or anything, I’m kind of one of the Fabulous Killjoys." I drawled, trying to make myself look like less of a fool for having to get my life saved by the girl I may or may not have been trying to hit on.  
Chem laughed, "Hey! Harm! Get a look at this! He thinks he's the shit  
because he's a Fabulous Killjoy!" the two girls laughed.  
She got right in my face and looking me straight in the eye and said, "I don't  
care who you are, and you being a ‘Fabulous Killjoy’ means nothing to me. I work  
with Harm, saving Killjoys and doing what we need to survive. We are not part  
of your ranks and you have no control over me," she shot me with her glare and  
walked off with Harm leaving me confused and in awe of her independence and  
strength.  
Party came and joined me at the bar. "So, you kind of crashed and burned there. You're an excellent flirt, and if I could find the time in my oh so busy schedule I would totally ask you for lessons," he said, on the verge of laughter.  
"Get this, Party, she didn't even know who we were and she didn't care either. She and her friend laughed when I told them that I was a Fabulous Killjoy!" I said, grumpily and disapproving of the sour reaction my reputation had earned. It was at that moment that her friend, Harm, walked toward us.  
"Hello boys, I'm Harmless Insanity. And I know you're Kobra Kid," she stated pointing to me. "And you are, Beautiful?" She asked my brother.  
"Well... Um, I'm... Um, Party Poison?" he stuttered intelligently, and she smiled at his awkwardness. The whole scene was a little bit too sweet for my liking.  
"Hey, Harm, show them why you're the best shot around," shouted a voice from across the bar.  
"Alright. That shouldn’t be too tricky," She said.  
"How about that shot glass?" Chem smirked, choosing a target.  
The glass was about an inch tall and across the dance floor on the other side of the room. Before I could stop myself I shouted, "Not even Party could hit that!"  
Harm looked at my brother, quizzically before shouting, "Everyone clear the dance floor, unless you want a bullet to gracefully collide with your face! You want to give it a whirl, Hottie?" She said turning to my utterly dumbfounded brother.  
He let off a shot after stammering out some syllables that definitely did not actually make words but still somehow confirmed that he was going to try and hit the chosen target, and was quite close, but missed the glass. "A little too high, Sunshine," she advised. “Hit the lights,” she said to Crash. And then, in near total darkness, the only thing seen was a flash of steely silver light from her ray gun and the only thing heard was the tinkling ping of shattered glass. When the lights returned, she was seen still at the ready, holding the gun one handed. She proceeded to twirl her gun on her finger and blow out the slight steam from the barrel of the gun. Twirling the gun again, with quite a bit of skill, she holstered it by her hip. She and Chem looked at each other, with mirrored smiles on their faces and stalked out of The Battery. They didn't even look back to notice Party and I giving longing looks to the two girls who just showed us up.  
Both Party and I turned to Crash, and simultaneously we muttered, "Drink, please."  
He laughed, and as he poured our beverages he advised us, "Ye be warned, fellas. They stick around with no one but each other. You might be lost in their beauty and enigmatic personalities, but not even you, members of the Fabulous Killjoys, stand a chance so you might as well just give up the chase."  
Taking a large gulp of my soda I muttered, "I wish I had the strength to follow that advice, but I don't."  
"Neither do I," whispered Party, resting his forehead on the cool surface of the bar.  
"Good luck then. You're next drink is on me. You will definitely need it if you are going to try and chase them," Crash stated. Then talking mostly to himself added, "You could've chosen anyone, but it had to be them."


	2. I Can't Make You Stay

Party Poison

It had been almost a week since we ran into Chemical Shot and Harmless Insanity, yet it felt like last night. The two of us had gone back to Fun Ghoul and Jet Star, the other Fabulous Killjoys very shortly after everything had happened, the excitement had lulled and Kobra had gotten bored, so we just left.  
After five monotonous days of moving around the bare desert and almost no sign of Dracs anywhere, we were out of supplies. Like, there was nothing left and a small trip was not going to save us from starvation and dehydration. We debated the topic for about an hour, the four of us. Eventually it was decided, we needed to go into Battery City to get supplies.  
Runs to Battery City were dangerous enough with a full stomach and clear head, but now it was going to be extra difficult.  
“We just need to stay on our toes and not get killed. Simple,” Ghoul said next to me smiling.  
“It’s not just that, if anyone gets hurt we’re pretty much out of any medicinal supplies. We would have to ask Dr. D for help and I can’t even remember where he is right now,” I said, trying to explain my unwillingness to embark on this trip.  
“Party, it’s a four person mission and besides, you’re the leader, you call the shots in the heat of the moment. If you weren’t there, it’s even more risky and someone is more likely to get hurt. You always make the right calls in tough situations. Us three kind of need you.” Jet said, tugging on his jacket.  
I knew he was buttering me up, but I still wasn’t sound in this trip. I had an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach, one I’d never experienced before and that really worried me. Instead of further protest, I sighed and grabbed my mask, heading towards the Trans-Am.  
I waited for Ghoul to get in the back of the car before climbing into the driver’s side myself. Twisting the key into the ignition, the Trans-Am made the rumbling, dying sound that meant that it would start, though the sound it made suggests otherwise, unless you were familiar with the way it ran. I shifted the car and we started to drive. A few minutes later, the place we had stayed in had disappeared and it was nothing but us, the desert, and the cloud of angry dust left in our trail.  
                                                                                                                        ***  
Hours later, the sun had started to dip over the tall hills that could almost be called mountains in the distance. We were almost to Battery City. It was in view, looming over the dry sand and empty landscape like a colorless black hole. As we approached, it only got bigger.  
“Did the city grow, or is it just me?” Kobra asked from the seat next to me. No one really answered, but we did give various reactions that suggested yes. We zipped into one of the tunnels leading into the metal and glass monstrosity.  
Surprisingly, no one was manning any of the checkpoints we passed. At the third one, I stopped, sure that something was up. That just never happens, they’re so uniform, they don’t just abandon post. I got out of the Trans-Am and walked towards the toll booth like structure. Inside of it and behind it, were bodies. Clearly some Killjoys had gotten here first, and recently. That meant we didn’t have much time before someone realized something had happened and sent lots of Dracs to investigate.  
I dashed back to the Trans-Am and started to drive through the tunnels even faster. And then, we were in the city. No one was around and we stashed the car between the end of the tunnel and a taller building. The four of us grabbed backpacks and split into two groups, me and Kobra, and Ghoul and Jet.  
“Good luck,” Kobra said to the other two as they dashed into the city to snag whatever supplies they could.  
Upon entering a small BL/Ind. supply shack, we came in contact with two Dracs. They seemed to also be raiding the shack. I lifted my gun and shouted, "Guns down, hands up."  
The two laughed, making us a little unsure of what they were. Dracs never show emotion. They lifted off the ugly, white masks to reveal one girl with long blonde hair and another with brown. "Sweetcheeks... chill," Laughed the voice of the girl who had dominated my dreams.  
"I saved your lives, and this is how you repay me," replied Chem as both girls turned to face us.  
I'm sure it was extremely comical, the looks of utter idiocy on both my brother’s and my faces. That was until, in my shock, I accidentally leaned on the alarm that would alert all of the Dracs where we were. "Shit," I muttered.  
"Nice going, Cupcake. Let's run," said Harm. And that's what we did. As we reached the Trans-Am where Jet and Ghoul already were, a look of realization came to their faces. "Mirage..." muttered Harm.  
"There's no time to get your bike, get in the car and let's go," Kobra stated. "We have to bring you to Dr. Death-Defying."  
Chem laughed, "Believe me, we know him well."  
***  
As protocol, we brought them to Dr. D. We let them go in alone, however Kobra and I could not help but listen through the door.  
"Hey D. Long time no see," laughed Chem.  
"Girls! I missed you! How have you been?" Asked Dr. D. leaving Kobra and I confused at how the know each other so well.  
"We were great, until this one decided to save a Fabulous Killjoy. Then, those Killjoys messed up our mission and left Mirage behind!" ranted Harm.  
"Well, you've been busy. Now I meant to ask, are you sure that you don't want to join our ranks?" He asked them.  
"You know why we can't..." Harm's voice trailed off. I wondered what could be so bad that they couldn't join us.  
"I see. I think you guys should stay with the Fabulous Killjoys until it is safe to go back and get your bike," he stated softly, as if he were worried for their well being.  
"D, you don't need to worry about us," softly stated Chem.  
"I know," he replied, "But I can't seem to stop myself." We could hear the girls hugging him goodbye, so we rushed down it the area where the two other Fabulous Killjoys were.  
"Hey Princess. I guess you're stuck with us until Dr. D deems it safe to get our bike," Harm joked lightly, but her smile didn't quite meet her eyes.


	3. Such an Awful Fuck

Kobra Kid

The girls were just settling into the diner, our humble abode, and I thought it would be polite to see how Harm was doing. As I opened the door, I saw something I could never unsee in all my years. Believe me, being a Killjoy has exposed me to many horrible things, but none of it prepared me for seeing my brother and Harm making out. I mean literally sucking faces. "JESUS! FUCK! MY EYES, MY POOR, POOR EYES!" I screamed. 

Harm laughed and Party blushed, burying his face in her shoulder. "Is there something you wanted?" she asked. 

"No... I'm... Um... Just going to leave you to what you were doing... Bye," I stuttered quickly and ran from the room. Trying to put as much distance between that room and myself, I ran straight into Chem knocking her flat on her ass. "Hi, Chem. What are you doing?" I asked, slightly embarrassed, and helped her to her feet.

"Oh, I was just going to check on Harm," she smiled, starting to walk again.

"No!" I shouted, grabbing her arm.

"What?" Chem asked, confused by my actions. 

"Um.. We'll believe me in that she's settling in just fine, Party is helping her out with that," I said scratching my neck slightly. 

Understanding, she placed her hand on my shoulder, "Oh... I'm sorry about what you must have seen," she stated, sounding truly sympathetic. 

"Yeah, maybe some Power Pup would help me take my mind off of it? Or I could just rip my eyes out of my skull," I said.

Chem laughed, a truly melodic sound. "How about we get Power Pup now because I haven't eaten since yesterday morning. There will be tons of time to rip your eyes out later," she joked.

"Maybe ripping my eyes out would be a bad idea, ‘cause I wouldn’t be able to see your beautiful face any more," I blurted out, immediately blushing. Unable to look at her I mutter out, "Well gotta go, see you later," and ran off.

I could just barely hear her call, "Kobra! Wait!" But I ignored it. 

As I turned the corner, Fun Ghoul placed a hand on my shoulder. "Dude," he started, shaking his head. "I'm not sure which is more lame, the fact that you actually used that line, or the fact that you  _ ran away  _ right after you used that horrible line."

“I know. It was a spur of the moment thing that I blurted out. I'm an idiot," I mumbled.

"You wouldn't have been such an idiot if you had looked at her and seen that she totally thought that it was sweet," Ghoul advised me.

"Really?" I asked, surprised that Ghoul was giving good advice.

"Yeah. So, now you need to get back there, redeem yourself, flirt a bit, and for Christ's sake don't let her eat that shit alone," he smiled, finishing his pep talk. I ran for the kitchen and could barely hear him state, "Wow, that was some damn good advice. I need to do that more often."

I entered the kitchen, seeing Chem alone eating the barely edible shit we call food. I sat beside her, and she blushed. "I see you came back," she whispered. 

"Yeah. Can we forget that ever happened?" I asked, hopeful.

"Sure," she muttered, sounding slightly upset, left half of her food on the table and ran away.

I heard someone sit across from me. I looked up to see Ghoul looking disappointed at me. "Goddamn it Kobra. You had one job and you failed, epically . And in the process, I'm pretty sure you made her cry. Nice going, asshole."

I buried my head in my hands and muttered, "I'm so stupid."

To this Ghoul replied, "Yes. Yes you are."

"Thanks for helping cheer me up Ghoul," I said, sarcastically.

"The only one who needs cheering up is the pretty girl that you just made cry, but I think Jet Star is already on that job," he said, not helping at all.

"Well, now I feel even more like shit then I didn't a few moments ago," I grumbled, bitterly.

"Could be your diet. Power Pup is know to do that to people," Ghoul joked, but I couldn't find it in me to laugh.

"Maybe I should go talk to her," I thought aloud.

"Yes because that worked so well last time. Let Jet talk to her, he'll help her come around and realize that you weren't thinking. He's good at that," Ghoul advised.

"I guess so... I hope so..." I dejectedly walked back over to sit on the counter, where Chem had left half of her lunch.


	4. A Match You Strike To Incinerate

Party Poison

It felt like a few hours had passed before Harm and I left the room. Needless to say, it was awkward to have my younger brother walk in on us. After the uncomfortableness of that intrusion, we talked and maybe/probably kissed a bit (lot) more. Eventually, Harm thought we should check on Chem. As we walked into the kitchen, I saw Kobra sitting with his head in his hands.  
"You go on and see Chem, I need to check on Kobra," I said kissing her on the cheek. She continued down the hallway and I sat across from my depressed brother. "Hey, little bro, you alright?" I asked, worried about his answer.  
"No. I fucked things up with Chem and I'm not sure if I can fix them," he stated, eyes forlorn and I knew he was blaming himself for whatever had happened.  
"Hey, come on now, tell me what happened. Maybe I can-" I was interrupted by yelling.  
"THAT LITTLE SHIT DID WHAT?!" I heard Harm yell and slam the door. She stomped down the hallway and got right in his face. "DO YOU HAVE A FUCKING DEATH WISH?" She asked.  
His eyes showed his fear for the girl, "Um... no..?" He stuttered.  
"So, tell me Kobra Kid, did you think that making my best friend cry would not warrant your death?" She stated, her voice turning unusually calm for the situation we were in. I reached out and grabbed her hand. "Now, if you want to survive, you better march your ass straight down to her room and fix this." And with that he went straight to see Chem.  
"Hey, Harm. His intentions are well and good, he just isn't sure how to act upon them," I said, gently defending my brother.  
"You don't say?" She asked, voice dripping in sarcasm.  
"I think he really likes her, he is just afraid. We've lost so many people, that love becomes a fear- a fear that when we finally find love that we will have to see them die," I said.  
"Is that how you feel?" Harm asked, softly.  
"I did, until I met you," I said smiling.  
She laughed and said, "That was so cheesy, but I understand. I thought it would always be just Chem and I against the world. Don't get me wrong, I've never needed more than her, I love the girl. But I can't lie and say that this isn't nice."  
Then I kissed her. Right there in the kitchen where anyone could see us. I couldn't find it in me to care, and neither could she. That was until a wolf-whistle and clapping sounded from the other side of the room. We parted to see Ghoul standing there.  
"Well you guys move fast," Ghoul laughed. "I thought Kobra and Chem were the only love-sick teenagers around here. I guess I was wrong."  
She laughed and smiled at Ghoul. "Ghoul when you find love-"  
He cut her off with a snort. "If love is anything like the two of them down the hall," he pointed to where Kobra and Chem were hopefully working things out. " Then I want none of it," and walked away.  
She laughed again, and turned to look at me. "If he’s calling us love-sick teens, what exactly are we, Charming?" She asked.  
"Whatever you want us to be," I replied.  
I sensed a flood of anger wash over her. "Well, if you don't care enough to even ask me out then I'll just go," she said, getting up.  
I grabbed her arm as she tried to leave the room. "Wait, please," I said. "I didn't ask you because I didn't want to rush things."  
"Honey, we wake up everyday wondering if we will live to see the next, and you're afraid of rushing things? Time is of the essence, and if we don't enjoy the simple pleasures in this goddamn wasteland then why should we even keep fighting — keep running if there is nothing to make it worthwhile," she ranted, finally meeting my eyes.  
"Simple pleasure? There is nothing simple about what I feel for you," I flirted.  
"First of all, no. NO. Way too much cheese,” She shoved my shoulder slightly, very slightly blushing, “Secondly, that was the only thing you got from that entire speech?" She said laughing and shaking her head.  
I smiled, "I also got that you like me, too."  
She shook her head. "You dipshit."  
"But I'm your dipshit," I grinned at her.  
"You're still way too cheesy for my liking," she stated.  
"That's a lie, and you know it," I said, wrapping my arms around her.  
"The sad thing is you're right. Never did I ever think that I would be caught up in the way you got me," she sighed.  
"I can't help but agree. But then again, what were the chances of me meeting a girl who is almost as sassy as me?" I stated.  
She pushed me away, "Almost as sassy as you?"  
"Yeah, I mean I am the God of Sass," I smirked.  
"Oh okay. This was going so well. That is until I found out that you refuse to admit that I surpass you in sass," she said dramatically, flipped her hair and began walking away.  
"Babe, don't do this. Don't be jealous of my sass," I called after her.  
"I'll try, Sweetiepie. And do you have a shirt I can steal? I really need a shower."  
"Yeah. Top drawer in my room. Take whatever you want," I retorted with a dumb grin and she began to walk away. I ran and caught up to her. "Before you go, there is something I need to say. You've been stuck in my mind since that day in the bar when you showed me up. You looked beautiful when the lights came up on you and the gun. Finding you and accidentally sabotaging your mission was an accident that I don't regret and I hope that you don't either. If I believed in fate, I'd certainly say that's what brought us together, but I don't because fate’s just stupid. However, seeing you this morning reminded me this is legit, that you were here. And I really shouldn't be thinking like this, but I really like you. Will you go out with me?" I asked, adding ,"Please?" as an afterthought.  
Not a word spoken, she started to blush a violent red and kissed me, giving me an answer to my question.


	5. Hear the Knock, Knock, Knock When She Cries

Kobra Kid  
I found myself standing in front of Chem's door. As I raised my hand to knock, I began to second guess what she would say seeing me there, but Harm's threats made me gently tap the door three times.  
"Go away," came a voice, broken and muffled by pillows and tears.  
I opened the door slightly. "It's me, Chem, can I come in?" I asked quietly.  
"Why, so you can flirt with me and then tell me you take it back? Oh wait you already did that," she growled.  
"Chem, please, let me explain," I said opening the door. She lay face down but her tear stained face was turned toward the door. Her clothes were slightly wrinkled and covered in dark splotches that were damp with tears. I found myself subconsciously making my way toward her. She sat up and wiped her face.  
"What is there to explain, Kobra? I'm the idiot who read too much into the situation. I'm the one who had this crazy idea that you could possibly like me, and when you didn't, I was the one who set the high hopes that got crushed. I just don't have the best track record with boys, I guess," she muttered.  
"What do you mean by that?" I asked.  
"Wouldn't you like to know?" She laughed slightly through her sadness. "Actually, you probably don’t want to know my backstory."  
I thought about how sad she was and how to fix it. I was scared. How do I fix this without telling her how I really feel. How she hasn't left my mind since she showed up out of nowhere, saving my life. Or how I practically cried when she ran from me. Or how seeing her now really made me want to— no, I can't be thinking like that. I couldn't say anything, just watch her.   
She began to cry again. Before I could stop myself, I reached a hand out to wipe her tears away from her face. She froze when my hand rested on her face.   
"What... What are you doing?" She stuttered.  
"Showing you that I care," I smiled at her.  
She frowned, "You don't even know me. How can you trust me?"  
"I just can. And if you want me to prove that I trust you, I will. I’d rather have you call me by my actual name—"  
"Kobra! No!" She stopped me, literally covering my mouth with her hand. "No Kobra. Don't. You’d regret it if you knew who I was. You wouldn’t even talk to me, never mind trust me," she let go of a few more tears.   
"Maybe I want to know everything. Maybe I want you to trust me. Just let me in," I begged.  
"I can't. I can't..." She whispered.  
"Can't or won't?" I asked bitterly.  
She didn't say anything, and I was too caught up in my own anger to notice she had begun to sob again.   
"No don't. Please don't," I begged. I wasn't sure what else to do at the moment. I did the one thing that I had wanted to do since I had first seen her. I leaned in and-  
"Finally!" Shouted Party Poison.  
"Yeah, well maybe if you hadn't interrupted," I glared at my brother bitterly.  
Chem laughed as Harm appeared from the hallway. "Ha! I win Perfect, I told you I they wouldn't kiss. I told you that you’d screw it up. So say it," demanded Harm.  
"Fine," said Party, "I was wrong and you were right." I couldn't help but laugh along with Chem when I saw my brother admit he was wrong to this tough girl.   
"What do you think you are laughing at?" Party asked me.  
"Nothing..." I said through my laughter.  
"What he means to say is that he is laughing at you because you lost this bet," said Harm. “If these two weren’t here you could pay me back, but I don’t want to traumatize your little brother.” The four of us were just sitting there, laughing. It was a great change to the sadness that originally blanketed the room.  
There was a knock on the door. It opened to reveal a small girl. "Hiya," she skipped in. "The boys never have girls around here. I'm Missile Kid. Who are you?"  
Each girl said their respective names and the smile grew on Missile's face. "I'm always the only girl around here. Can I trust you girls? Can we be friends?" She asked.  
Chem smiled, "I would love to be your friend."  
"Me too," said Harm.   
The girls were smiling and Harm reached to ruffle Missile’s hair when a very worried Jet Star ran in. ”Guys! We have a huge problem, S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W is here. Missile, you need to go to the hiding spot. Now," he shouted.   
"Well, shit," I exclaimed.


	6. Just Look at All That Pain

Chemical Shot

Shit. Just shit. As the S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/Ws entered the building, I grew less frightened about the attack and started to fear the reason they weren't shooting. Every Killjoy present had already drawn their weapon when the obvious leader stepped forward. He took off his mask and I never could have been prepared for the face behind it, or the raw pain it carried. Suddenly, my mind snapped me back to the last place I had ever wanted to go.

_ "Jason, please," the girl begged. She was Harm, but she wasn’t. Not quite yet. "You're my brother and I can't leave without you!" She cried out, slamming her fist sideways into the wall, the rest of her body following, sobbing into it as her voice morphed and turned into a ripping sob that shook her entire body. _

_ I grabbed her shoulder, and turned to lead her out of the room. "Please, just let me talk to him alone," I asked and she nodded and trudged dejectedly down the hall a little as I walked back inside.  _

_ "J, please come with us," I begged him.  _

_ "No," he replied. _

_ "Please," I cried. _

_ "No, L. Just because you cannot see the good in Better Living Industries does not mean I don't. You saw what happens without them, it’s happening to my sister and you right now. Why would anyone want that when BL/Ind. could take it all away?” His expression never changed, his voice was completely monotonous. _

_ "Then I'm leaving without you, J," I said, tears starting to escape no matter how hard I tried to stop them. _

_ "Just know, L, if you walk out of the city walls we immediately become enemies and I  _ don’t  _ hesitate to kill my enemies," he growled. _

_ “I thought you cared,” I shrieked as I walked away from him and towards my friend. _

_ A and I stumbled out of the building without the one thing about this place we had wanted to save. The two of us clamored into the car Dr. D had waiting,. "I'm sorry, girls," he said.  _

_ "Shut up and drive, I want to be as far away as possible by the time we slow down," I choked out as he drove. I sobbed, A and I clinging to each other as if we were going to fall apart if we didn’t. I lost the boy I loved and she lost her brother, but somehow we weren’t going to let that stop us. We would make it through this, we had to. _

 

"J..." I whispered. My brain and body stopped functioning. My arm fell out of shooting position and my gun slipped from my feeble grasp. 

He walked toward me with a smile on his face. "L, sweetheart. I missed you," his voice dripped with the sticky poison my nightmares had come to associate with pain. He reached out to touch my face when he was lifted up by the collar of his shirt by none other than Kobra Kid. 

Harm stalked over from the cover she had taken in case bullets had started to fly and sotic as stone, marched up to the thing held aloft by Kobra that she once called family. "Oh little sis, don’t think I forgot about you," he said snootily, his voice chilling my mind.

"You have no right to even speak!" She shouted, voice trembling, her hands balling into fists, and connecting with the creature’s face, his nose began to gush blood. Suddenly, I was glad that head wounds bleed a lot. Kobra threw him to the ground and he made a strangled cry of pain. 

“I thought you couldn’t feel. I’m glad it doesn’t cover pain,” Kobra spat. In the corner of my dulled vision, I saw him beginning to kick the mass of flesh on the ground in the stomach repeatedly. After Kobra got ahold of his anger, the other Dracs assisted him in supporting his now bloodied body that should have been a corpse.

I sunk to my knees, unable to take the overflow of painful memories.

Two of the guys, Jet and Ghoul, I thought, moved in front of me and kept me out of the line of fire. They began shooting the Dracs left and right, just flashes of color and bodies falling that I failed to make out clearly. Only a few got away, J unfortunately being one of them. I still couldn't stand, couldn't think. Kobra was sitting in front of me, holding me, begging me to listen to him. I couldn't speak. Harm shoved him out of the way, so hard that he almost hit the ground. When she sat in front of me the whole room was silent. She tried every tactic in the book to remove me from my trance. She did everything from violently shaking me to yelling in my face. It wasn't until a sharp blossom of pain erupted below my eye that I snapped back to reality. It took me a moment to realize that she had slapped me. Flat out and right in the face.

"Snap out of it," she echoed herself, her voice harsh and angry. It was either her voice or the stinging in my cheek that made me come to my senses, but either way, my best friend was the cause. And either way, she still slapped me. I won’t soon forget that.

"We need to see Dr. D," said Party urgently. I held up the universal sign for just a minute and dragged Harm to one of the back bedrooms.

"Harm, we can't stay here. It's just putting them at too much risk," I say.

“You’re right, I just wish you weren’t," she sighed. As we joined the others in the Trans-Am and took the journey to Dr. D's hideaway.

                                                                                                         ***

When we arrived, the boys went in to debrief D. When they were done, he called us in. To say that we were pissed was an understatement.

"So, Dr. D, you told me my brother was a S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W, however you just so happened to leave out the fact that he is the head-fucking-honcho!" Harm yelled at him.

"Yeah. You didn't think it would be important to tell me that my ex went from being a douche bag to an even  _ bigger  _ douche bag?" I ranted, and let out a sigh. He just chuckled at our angry state and waited for us to calm down.

A few minute passed and I let out a sigh. "Listen, Dr. D, we can't stay with the Fabulous Killjoys anymore. We're too much of a danger to them all,” I said, sadness seeping into my voice.

"I knew you would say that," he said. "I already told Show Pony to tell them you would stay over night. However, I have a proposition for you both. I need information on the inner workings of BL/Ind. Do you think you could go undercover for me?" He asked.

I looked over at Harm and shrugged. She looked at Dr. D and said, "We'll do it."

"Good. I have the motorbike ready for you. You can leave early tomorrow morning. Is there anything you want me to tell the boys when they come expecting to pick you up tomorrow?" He asked. 

"Tell them everything. No more secrets," I said, full of remorse.


	7. If We Lose This War

Party Poison  
We returned to Dr. D's hideaway early the next morning. I ran through the door, excited to see Harm. Kobra and I could not find them anywhere we looked. We were searching another hallway when a voice stopped us. "If you're searching for the girls, you should stop. You won't find them," Dr. D said.  
"What?" I asked, worried, but Dr. D brushed my question off. It wasn't until all four of us were seated in their office that he explained anything.   
"I knew the girls before BL/Ind. took over, they interned for my radio show," he started. "They were inseparable best friends who did a punk show. What was only supposed to be only a semester became years of working through the air waves. Chem was dating Jason, Harm's brother. Music was an escape for them. The take over by BL/Ind. was especially difficult for Chem, with her love buying everything they said, and of course, the matter of her father, Korse—"   
"Wait, what?" Kobra Kid interrupted.  
"Yes. Now if you will let me continue. Harm's parents immediately became Draculoids, but Chem's mother would not be fooled. She refused to take the pills and wouldn’t let either of them take anything BL/Ind. gave them. She created maps of the city and what she knew of the zones for Chem, until she was killed by none other than her own husband. That's when I became even more of a father to the girls, using the handmade maps to help us escape. The last thing they tried to do was to get Jason to run away with them, but he was too far gone to be saved," Dr. D finished.  
"They’re even more badass than we thought," Ghoul said, in awe of how they handled everything this world has thrown at them.  
"So where are they?" asked Kobra.  
"Now that is something that I cannot tell you. However I will tell you that they left because they felt that they were putting you in danger. And that they wouldn’t have decided to go where they have gone to protect you if they didn’t care about you.”  
I couldn’t speak, I’d gone numb, almost like Chem had yesterday. But I shook myself out of it. I was less angry than I thought I would have been. It still hurt, losing someone to the unknown. It was almost like Harm was dead, but it was so much worse. She was somewhere. Just not here. Just not with me. Wherever she was, wherever Chem was too, I hoped they were safe.  
I noticed Kobra had left the room at some point, but I was still standing where I was when Dr. D told us. As suddenly as that numbness had swept through me, it left and for a moment I just deflated. Then pain and anger took it’s place. In a blind fury, I punched through the wall nearest me with a howl. It hurt, but I didn’t even notice. I was incapable of caring.  
I marched over to Dr. D and got right in face. “What do you fucking mean by we can’t know where they are?!” I shouted in his face.  
“To start, you just spit in my face. Second, back up because you are crowding me. And lastly, it was their request not to tell you,” he said, softly. “I would love to tell you where they are so that you can prevent them from doing anything stupid. However, I will not disrespect their wishes.”  
“That’s not an excuse! What if they’re in danger? If they die, you will be the only one to blame. Could you live with yourself if you were the reason they died?” I ranted, near hysteria.  
“Party, stop being so melodramatic. They are fine, and if there is ever a point where they are in danger, believe me, you will be the first to know,” Dr. D looked back as he left the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts.   
I sank to the ground, trying to remember the taste of her lips on mine, her laugh, her smile and not the fact that she was gone. I failed miserably and a few stray tears escaped.  
“Hey,” started Kobra sitting down beside me. “I figured you wouldn’t want to be alone. I didn’t want to be alone.”  
It was at that moment in which I realized how selfish I was being. I completely forgot to think of my little brother who must have been hurting as much as I was. I put my arms around him. “It’ll be okay, Kobra,” I said, not believing what I was saying.  
“Don’t fucking lie to me. I might be your little brother, but I’m not your little brother,” He muttered, bitterly letting tears escape. “I should have helped her. I should have stayed here with her. I should have-”  
“Staying here and complaining about what we should have done is not going to save their asses,” I said cutting him off completely. “We need to find where they went. And Dr. D just left, odds are we could find something about what he sent them to do.”  
“You’re right,” Kobra said curtly, standing abruptly and moving behind the desk. Quietly, he slid open the first drawer on the left. “Well, what are you waiting for, come help me, damnit.” He spoke quietly, but with a force I’d only heard him use when his life was on the line. I suppose it was, in a way. I gathered my thoughts and rose to my feet, joining him on the right side of the desk. The drawers were full of reports and papers. It must have been a huge pain in the ass to move all this every time. I read the titles of all the pages I could see and skimmed the material, looking for a Harmless Insanity or Chemical Shot. My fingers scraped the bottom of the compartment with not a mention of either of them. I checked for a false bottom, just in case.  
To my absolute befuddlement, there actually was a false bottom. I put the papers on top of the desk. “Kobra, look,” I called. Underneath the thin wooden panel was a picture. It was Chem and Harm. They were in a room that looked like… I wasn’t sure, a gym? But it was definitely pre-Battery City. They were smiling, beaming actually. The picture looked faded, and the girls looked younger, but damn it was them.   
"Wow," Kobra gasped. "They look so... so…”  
"Happy," I supplied for him. The girls are standing side by side with their arms around each other. They were smiling like no one one I'd ever seen in this desolate shithole. Kobra grabbed the picture. He flipped it over.  
"Hey, this is in Dr. D's handwriting. It says, 'A and L graduation," he read handing me the photograph.  
I saw that there was more writing. "Kobra, look. In someone else’s handwriting it says —"   
"Oh please, do tell. Party, don't be shy. Read what it says on the back of the photograph that was hidden in my desk," spoke a surprisingly calm Dr. D. Nervously I handed Dr. D the photo. "I said read it Party! I know for a fact that you are not illiterate," he half-shouted giving the photo back.  
I read off the back of the picture, "One of the writing says 'Who gives a damn if we lose this war?'… and another reads 'Let the walls come down, let engines roar." The second writing was stouter, but still quite neat. I handed it back to Dr. D.  
He smiled. "I remember this well. I was with Chem's mom when she took this at their graduation . The first writing is Harm, the other is Chem. Her mother knew that she would eventually get caught and wanted me to have it. She said she wanted someone who loved the girls like she did to keep it."  
Then, the unthinkable happened, Dr. D put the photo on his desk and let a few tears leaking out. He furiously wiped them away, and left the room.  
I looked at Harm’s smile. How at peace she looked. She looked completely happy with the girl she ran away with who mirrored her feelings. I want to make her smile like that, I thought. Kobra’s face told me he was thinking the same about Chem.   
Kobra decided to keep looking in the secret compartment. He picked up a photo that made him flare up with anger. "Kobra, what is it?" I asked.  
He threw the photo on the desk, and I saw why he was so angry. It looked like a prom photo of Chem. She had a long black and blue dress. But kissing her on the check was the dick that had very recently become our enemy.  
"Kobra, she doesn't even care for him anymore. His own sister hates him. If however he is now is bad enough for family to turn on him, then she won’t even think about him. She's crazy about you," I reassured him.  
He glanced at the photo, "She's clearly in love with him there. I doubt she'll ever look at me like that," he sighed.  
"Go get your nerd glasses, because if you can't see how much she already does, then you are blind," I told him.   
"Ugh! I could honestly kill him!" He ranted, punching the wall.  
"Hey, come on Kobra Kiddo, save your fist for the asshole," I warned him.   
"If you even think about calling me that again, I won't have to wait to punch an asshole," he warned with a joking smirk.  
"Oh don't be like that Kobra Kiddo," I joked. He took a pretend swing and I caught it.  
We laughed, "Oh Party Pooper, your humor is so amusing."  
The two of us sat down in our laughter. If it weren't for the girls we loved being gone, or the fact that we were even in a situation like this in the first place, we could almost pretend that it was just like old times.


	8. How I Disappear

Harmless Insanity  
I’d been driving Mirage for what had felt like ages, my palms red and angry from the handlebars. Whoever asked, I would have denied that I’d been crying over Party Poison, but I was crying over him, in my own way. The way where you can feel it tearing you up inside but not a single tear is allowed to fall. See, this is why I don’t do relationships, the annoying voice in my head quipped. I told it to shut up. I saw a large rock near the road we were pelting down, and pulled over.  
“Why’d we stop?” Chem asked from behind me. I didn’t answer, but raised my hands toward her face so she could see that they weren’t supposed to be that color. “Oh,” she said climbing off and leaning against the rock. "It's okay A, we'll see them again.”  
“Yeah, right. As if they’ll want to see us after Dr. D tells them everything.” I kicked the dirt and pebbles at my feet.  
“No, Party will still love you. It's not like you're Korse's daughter or anything," she stated dejectedly. She teared up. I didn’t really know how to comfort people, I’d always been shit at it, but I want everyone to know, I tried. Awkwardly, I reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder. Chem pulled me towards her and hugged me tight. Her body shook everywhere as massive sobs took over.  
“I’m not going to say it’ll be okay, because we’re probably going to die pretty soon but first we can kill my brother…?” I tried. Tried.   
“We're not going to die, you've got a boy who loves you sitting at that diner, just waiting for you to come home," she said, crying even more.  
“He wouldn’t say anything like that if he knew what I did to my parents…” I looked anywhere but Chem’s eyes.  
"Oh shut it, they tried to kill us. They were brainwashed by BL/Ind. At least yours weren't themselves. Korse wants to kill us and that's just his normal self. And the boys will still accept you, Party will still love you—" her voice trailing off a bit toward the end.  
“No. I killed them. They’re dead because of me. Their daughter. I still hate myself for it, why shouldn’t he?” My voice quivered, I was going down a bad road that I had begun to walk on frequently.   
"Hey, don't be so down on yourself. You were faced with the choice of killing them or watching me die and not one of the three of us could have seen that coming. You could have chose them, I wouldn't have been mad," she said, refusing to meet my eyes.  
I looked around the barren landscape surrounding us. Thinking that I really didn’t want to break my hand by punching it, I instead climbed the rock behind Chem. Once I was on top, I screamed. It was angry, long, painful. Anyone nearby probably thought someone was just tortured. After I ran out of air, I curled up on top of the rock and just sat there, unmoving, face burrowed into the cool stone underneath me. I hated what I had done. There was always another way. Always. And every day, I asked myself why I hadn’t been able to find it.   
"I know what you're thinking, but there wasn't another way. It should have been me..." she cried, her tears creating a contrast in the light sand.  
I didn’t look up from the top of the rock. I’d gone immobile. It happened sometimes. I never cry about anything, I just stop functioning. Which is sometimes annoying, but right then, I didn’t care. It’s my fault, there should have been something else, I could have saved them all, it’s my fault. It’s my goddamn fault. My thoughts were screaming, tearing at the edges of my brain, so loud I was certain Chem could hear. They only got louder. I squeezed my eyes shut, images playing across the screen of black I’d created. Gun. Blood. Car. Chem. Mom. Dad. NO! And then there was a hand on my shoulder. It stopped. She’d made it stop again. I still didn’t cry.  
“You need to stop, A-,”   
“That’s not my name anymore, I don’t deserve what they gave me.”  
"Sometimes I feel as though you'd have preferred that I died and they lived. And everyday I know that I would have sacrificed myself to see you smile like you used to," she said, walking away.  
And then I broke. For the first time since J refused to follow us, I cried. Crying actually hurt after so long. I knew what came next. Next I got angry. Irrationally, dangerously so. I stood up on the rock again, maybe I screamed, I'm not sure. Ripping my gun out of it's holster at my waist, I shot the rock at my feet, the blackened marks left behind quickly eroding the surface. The rock split, and I fell off and onto the ground. In a haze of rage, I chucked my gun as far as I could, heard the dull thud of it landing somewhere close.  
After a while of sitting with my back against the demolished rock, I got up. Shaking the anger and sadness from my mind, I walked around the rock and over to Chem. "I'm sorry, L," I whispered from behind her. "You are wrong about one thing, though. Without them I get angry and depressed sometimes, but if it were you instead, I would have killed myself or done so many stupid, dangerous things that I would have died anyways. Without you I would have disappeared. Just... Don't forget that sometimes your friends are all the family you really have left. And you're that to me. You've saved my ass so many times, and even if we lose Kobra and Party after this, you'll still have me and I'll still have you. Do good to remember that the only reason I still smile at all is you."  
"Yeah?" She asked wiping the tears from her face.  
"Yeah. Now we better get going if we want to make Battery City before nightfall," I replied. After about fifteen minutes of hunting for my gun, we both got on Mirage and drove to the city that caused us so much pain  
1 week later  
We were easily accepted into their ranks. Chem played the part of the lovesick ex, even though I could tell how uncomfortable she was when Jason would touch her. I played the sad little sister. At this point, we had many ways to cover the fact we weren't taking the pills. It helped that there was another undercover Killjoy, and he even managed to hook Chem up with her weapon of choice, throwing daggers.  
Later that evening, we were lying on cots in a room side by side. I saw Chem visibly shaking. "You okay?" I asked the trembling girl.  
"No. I don’t think I am," she whispered, as I sat down next to her.  
I gave her a look as if to say Tell me everything.  
“I don’t know Harm,” she whispered. “I just keep getting lost in my thoughts,” she admitted quietly.  
“Hey, Chem. You can tell me anything. You know that right? Best friends forever,” I reassured her.  
“It’s just that I got to thinking, if Kobra doesn’t hate me because my father has been trying to kill him for a long time, then he will because of what your brother has been doing to me. He’ll be disgusted by me. Hell, even I’m disgusted by me,” she spoke, a bitter acid lacing her tone.   
“Hey, it's not your fault. J is a dick and Kobra won't-”  
“Give a shit?” she cut me off.  
“Okay, but just know that he is in love with you,” I told her.  
“Just… Can we forget about this? Did you get anything new for Dr.D?” she asked.  
“Yeah. I called him earlier. I found a ton of chinks both Korse’s and S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W’s armor,” I informed her.  
“Cool and I spent my day with your brother,”she said, physically shivering. I took her in my arms.  
“I’m so sorry Chem. I’ll go find us some food,” I walked out of the room, toward the kitchen when a voice caused me to stop.  
“I have some news for you, Sir,” I heard J’s voice.  
“Spit it out,” came Korse, the man I hated more than everything.  
“Well, our two girls may still be traitors. I caught A making a call with a non-BL/Ind. phone,” he stated. Shit, I thought.  
“Have you been able to trace location of the number she called?” Korse asked.  
“We are very close to figuring it out,” said J. At that, I ran to the room.  
“L!” I shouted bursting through the door.  
“What is it?” she asked. I told her the whole story, and she grabbed her phone to make what could be her last phone call.


	9. I Can't Always Just Forget Her

Kobra Kid  
Party and I just couldn’t keep away. Every moment of spare time we had was spent trying to find our girls. We could find pictures of them before our tyrant government ruined our lives, however we could find nothing about where they disappeared to.  
Today, I was alone and the phone on Dr. D’s desk rang, flashing red to signify an emergency. I picked up the phone, and before I could even get a word out a voice came, “Dr. D, we’re in deep shit.”  
“Chem-” I choked.  
“Kobra, I don’t have time, and the time I do is running out,” she said, urgency evident in her voice.  
“Where are you? Can we help you?” I shouted into the phone.  
“Don’t be stupid, you’ll just end up getting yourselves killed. Now, just tell Dr. D that the mission was compromised and that we will miss you guys,” She cried.  
“Why are you talking like that?” I asked, afraid of the answer.  
“Kobra, I'm sorry that I never gave you a proper goodbye. I’m sorry. I-” she let out a bloodcurdling scream and the phone was ripped from her hand, the call ending.  
I ran out of the office, tears streaming down my face. I found Dr. D and the other Fabulous Killjoys and told them what had just happened.   
Party let out a scream, punching the table in front of him. Dr. D had tears in his eyes, as did Jet Star. Fun Ghoul looked angry.  
“So I think it is about time you tell us where they are before they die,” seethed Ghoul.  
“They’re in Battery City,” he whispered.  
“WHAT?!” Party and I said simultaneously.  
“They are undercover in Battery City. They were searching for Korse’s and S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W’s weaknesses,” He said, looking ashamed.   
Missile Kid entered at this time. “Guys, why are you so upset?” she asked, walking up to me and Party.  
“Chem and Harm are in trouble,” I explained.  
“My friends?” she asked, tearing up.  
“Yeah, and we’re going to need you to stay here when we go to save them,” Party told her.  
“But I wanna help. Oh Party, let me help,” she begged.  
“No, Missile, we can’t lose you too,” He hugged her.  
I left the room. I sunk down to the floor in the hallway. “Hey Kobra,” said Jet. “We will get them back.”  
“Yeah, but what if they’re not the same. What if Battery City broke them?” I questioned.   
“Well,” came the voice of Ghoul. “If there is one thing I know about those two girls is that they won't go down without a fight.”  
“Let’s go fucking save them,” shouted Party. We all got into the Trans-Am to save the girls Party and I love.


	10. The Hardest Part of This is Leaving You

Harmless Insanity

Her scream startled me out of my frozen state after my brother had grabbed me. He and Korse had burst into our room only moments ago, but Korse had hit her after ripping the phone from her grasp. All at once, I started moving. I hooked my leg around J’s ankle and brought him down, me still on top of him. I drove my elbow into his neck with as much force as I could. He let go of me and gasped, his hands going to his hopefully dented throat. I leapt off of him and kicked his head to the side with a satisfying crack. I’m not sure if his neck broke or not. I stalked over to Korse. “Let her go,” I growled, venom seeping into my voice and overflowing into my expression and stance. I was angry enough to kill more of my family. And feel nothing this time. 

“I have every right to hurt you both, you traitorous scum!” he retorted angrily.

In a flash, I was behind him. I ripped his gun out of its holster, I remembered where he liked to keep it from all that time ago, and held it to his head. “You’re a dead man,” I hissed, ready to kill.

“Ah, but if you shoot, my offspring dies too,” his hands were on her neck and she was shaking from lack of oxygen. I dropped the gun and ripped his arms back. Chem fell down, sucking in air like she’d never breathed before. I threw Korse across the room, or rather, tried to, as he only stumbled and crashed into a wall nearby.

I grabbed Chem tightly, but hopefully gently. “We need to go,  _ now".  _ She tried to stand, but she was still lacking oxygen. “Come on, L, please,” I begged.

“Can’t… Move… Not enough… Air,” She wheezed out. I may or may not have sighed over-dramatically as I pulled her onto my shoulders, like a fireman carrying someone out of a burning building. I shouldered my way out of the door and into the hall. I dashed through the building, looking for a way out, only exhausting myself by running into corners or Dracs. There were lots of them on my tail by then and I was starting to panic. Then I ran into another corner. 

“ _ Damn it! _ ” I shouted. 

"Leave... me... I'm....extra... weight," she breathed.

Suddenly, the weight on my shoulders disappeared.  _ No,  _ I thought as I spun on my heel, arms flailing to try and get Chem back. Looking at who took her made me back up, slamming into the wall. It was J.

“How did you… You should still be down! I’ve  _ killed  _ with that move!” I cried in indignation.

“I know your moves, I anticipated it. I played you, little traitor,” he said, Chem weakly struggling against the dipshit’s grip. 

I gave a cry and ran at him, my fury masking the fist from a nearby Drac that snapped my head back and sent me to one knee. I got back up and charged again. Another Drac tripped me, my chin slamming onto the gray carpet of the floor. 

      "Harm!" Chem screamed, hurting her already exhausted lungs and causing  her to double over in pain.

 I heard a sickening crack and felt my skin split. In anger I struck out at the nearest Drac, it went down. Two or three more came at me. Left and right I swung, landing a few lucky hits, but the brain dead warriors kept charging. Eventually I was crammed into the corner, fists flying at me, threatening to bludget me to death. I collapsed, vision darkening, and before I lost everything completely, all I saw was my brother’s snarl and Chem’s look of utter loss. The look of someone who just was escorted up to the gallows.

                                                                                                                               ***

My entire body hurt. It felt like fire, molten metal poured over my skin. I was on my back and the surface I was laying on was cold and hard. Concrete or stone. Suddenly the pain I felt hit full force. Not really any other reason except my return to consciousness. I groaned, a long sound that was much deeper than my normal voice.

“A, A can you hear me? Are you okay?” I heard Chem’s voice through the haze of the last tendrils of unconsciousness and sheer pain. 

“Stop talking, my head hurts,” I mumbled.

“You’ve been out for hours. We’re in a cell now,” she sounded tired, like she’d given up.

“Well, tha’s fuckin’ great,” I slurred. I think the Dracs might have hit my head a few more times than necessary.

“Get up, get up! Someone’s comi... Great. It’s you,” she spat, the last lines directed to the two new presences I felt around me. It was the combination of hearing more breathing and the footsteps that approached. 

I dragged myself up off of the cold ground. Opening my eyes, I realized my vision was blurry, smears of almost white, undefined nothingness blotched my abnormally imperfect sight. Sadly, I could still see the inhuman things in my presence. Korse and Jason. Fabulous.

“Just kill us, do it quick or slow, just end this fucking  _ game, _ ” I hissed, stumbling to my feet and leaning against the bars, and sticking my face through as far as I could, I actually spat in their faces. 

Korse smiled, "Honey, we aren't planning on killing you, you’re our connection to the Fabulous Killjoys."

"But father dearest, they hate us. They found out our relation and decided to disown us," Chem informed him, angrily. He just smiled, whispered something to J and left.

"Now, traitors, it's time to prevent the Fabulous Killjoys from saving you. In this gun, are three beams, two to make it impossible to flee,as they’re meant to immobilize the limbs touched by the beam, and a wild card," he smiled, his teeth showing an ominous point.

"Jason, you don't have to—" he cut me off with a ray just grazing the outside of my foot. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t even scream. He proceeded to shoot Chem in the calf. He’d always been shit at shooting but managed to actually hit her.

She cried out in pain, and he walked over to her. "Oh baby doll, who should get my wild card shot?" He asked.

"Me," she gritted out. He backed up and pointed his gun at her. However, just before he shot, he changed his target to me.

"No!" she cried jumping in front of the ray gun and collapsing on the ground. Before he could bask in his accomplishment, he received word that the Killjoys were entering the City.

"I can't lose you. Not you too," I cried, using my jacket to try and slow the blood gushing out of her side.

"It's okay," she smiled weakly, trying to move my jacket off of her wound. "Killjoys don't live that long anyway. This is your chance to run."

My ever-hopeful best friend had given up all chance of making it out of here alive. "No, I'm not leaving you behind. Never.  _ Fuck,  _ you’re all I have left, you can’t  _ leave  _ me!" I swore.

It was too much. Too much. I stopped trying to help Chem, I’d gone immobile again. But it was worse this time. I knew where I was going, what would happen next. And I really,  _ really  _ didn’t want it to. Then, I wasn’t in a cell anymore. I was in a car. It was stopped.

_ “What’s going on, why did we stop?” I asked Dr. D. We had only driven for five minutes, there wasn’t enough distance between myself and Jason yet. _

_ “Dracs, too many to get past. We need to take them out. Here,” Dr. D handed me and L ray guns. I’d never shot a person with one.  _ Dracs aren’t people,  _ I hissed in my mind. The Dracs had noticed the car and had started to walk over to us. _

_ “Here we go,” L said, rolling down her window. She opened the door and used it as a shield, shooting through the opening in the absence of glass. I didn’t do the same. I was getting up close and personal with the Dracs. I spun, whirling from enemy to enemy, taking down one after the other, whether by fists or bullets, I wasn’t sure and didn’t really notice. Or care. Bodies piled up until there were only about seven Dracs. I was next to two of them, my gun out of shots, and had taken them both up in hand-to-hand. I was doing fine. With a swift uppercut to the one on my left, it’s mask fell off. _

_ “Daddy?” I whimpered. It was like he didn’t even recognize me. I’d stopped moving, arms limp at my sides, vision fuzzy with fresh tears and lip quivering. _

_ Suddenly, a spire of silvery metal protruded through his shoulder. “A, you need to move!” Cried L, again taking charge of a situation that I just couldn’t deal with. Again. She threw a dagger that hit her next target, a Drac at my one o’clock. The sharp point went less than an inch too high, instead of taking the Drac out, it destroyed the mask, tearing it off of the Drac’s face. It was my mom. The both of them just blankly stared at me, moving to attack.  _

_ A flash of black rushed me from the side, shoving me out of the way. L had figured out what was happening, that those things had faces that I could remember. That I’d never forget. I was just to the side of the three of them. The two monsters with painfully familiar looks raised their guns in unison, as if they were puppets or robots, their fingers curling around the trigger. Weapons business end toward my best friend. I lost it then. I’d somehow grabbed another gun, from a downed Drac, or maybe just the ground. I can’t even remember. But I can remember the split-second precision with which I pulled its trigger. The flash of light didn’t look harmful, but it sure as hell was. There were two thuds, only milliseconds apart from each other as bodies hit the ground.  _

_ L was staring at her chest, amazed it wasn’t burned and bleeding. Her vision trailed towards the scene in front of her. She saw the bodies. As soon as she realized what had happened, she whipped her head to the car, where Dr. D shook his head as if to say,  _ not me, _ and then, in awed horror she turned to me. I hadn’t moved from my stance. I knew it was perfect. The man’s body in front of me had taught the form to me. _

_ And that was when I’d stopped wasting my tears. _

Removing myself from my thoughts, I continued to apply pressure to her wound. "You can't die on me," I gritted out, and started to scream at her. “Why would you  _ do  _ that?! That wouldn’t have killed me, but now  _ you’re  _ gonna die. No, no,  _ no, NO!  _ Not again.  _ Please! Jesus FUCKING Christ, not AGAIN!” _

“Hey, Harm. Consider it payback for slapping me back at the diner,” she joked, coughing out some blood.

“Now is not the time to joke,” I seethed.

“Who are you to tell me when to joke? I am lying in a pool of my own blood and I probably won’t live to see tomorrow,” She argued, taking my hand in hers. “I’m going to be a sarcastic asshole.”

“Why don’t you stop talking and worry about keeping your bodily fluids in your body?” I reasoned with her. 

One of my hands was grasping hers, and the other was trying to keep pressure on her wound and keep her alive.

“I swear to whatever fucked up deity that would let a world become this shit hole, if you die I’ll resurrect your ass just to kill you again,” I hissed through the threat of tears.

“I found them! In here! Harmless!” shouted Party opening a grate in one of the walls of the cell with a key he definitely stole.

“Baby?” I whispered in a state of disbelief, a shock of red hair and a beautiful face appearing by my side.

“Is Chem with her?” asked Kobra, running into the cell. “Oh. No. No, it can’t be. Is she okay?”

“What the  _ fuck  _ do you think she is? All dolled up and ready for the ball?” I seethed.

“Kobra, I’m fine. I can’t even feel the pain anymore,” she whispered to him softly.

“Yeah, that’s from the blood loss!” I cried. Kobra ran over to Chem and I found myself in the arms of Party Poison. I struggled a little, trying to get to Chem, but he didn’t let go.

Kobra wrapped her in his arms, crying slightly. “Chem, my Chem… My beautiful Chem. I’m so sorry. I should have been here for you.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Kobra. But you guys need to get out of here,” she said, her voice wavering, growing harder to hear with every word she spoke.

“What do you mean ‘you guys’?” questioned Jet.

“I will only slow you guys down, you need to leave me,” she argued. But despite her best efforts, Kobra picked her up, and we ran.


End file.
